WASHINGTON, April 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's alleged role in the Capitol riot is "of interest" to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, according to The Washington Post, as the high-stakes probe zeroed in on more associates of former President Donald Trump.
The U.S. newspaper, in a lengthy investigative piece published recently, revealed that the select House panel is particularly interested in whether Cruz was in contact with John Eastman, a Trump legal adviser "who wrote key legal memos aimed at denying" the victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
"As Eastman outlined a scenario in which Vice President Mike Pence could deny certifying Biden's election, Cruz crafted a complementary plan in the Senate," the article wrote.
Pence has reiterated that Trump has been wrong that the vice president has the right to overturn the election.
Federal judge David Carter in California said last week that the court finds it "more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021."
"The illegality of the plan was obvious," Carter wrote in a 44-page ruling. "President Trump vigorously campaigned for the Vice President to single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election."
The judge also ordered Eastman to turn over a subset of documents that the Jan. 6 committee had demanded in its subpoena.
Charles Burnham, Eastman's attorney, responded that his client would comply with the judge's order, but added that Carter's ruling "relied on evidence cherry-picked by the committee, supplemented by news articles."
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich denounced the ruling as "absurd" and "baseless," while accusing Democrats of "weaponizing every branch of government against" the former Republican president.
His closest allies and staunch supporters have charged the House inquiry as a political "witch hunt" designed to tar Trump and the Republican Party as a whole.
The Jan. 6 committee, The Washington Post noted, has also asked a number of people about Cruz's actions in the lead-up to the insurrection on Capitol Hill, adding that "among the questions the committee may address is whether Cruz talked with Trump or the president's lawyers and aides as the events unfolded on Jan. 6."
"Sen. Cruz has been friends with John Eastman since they clerked together in 1995," a spokesperson for the Texas Republican said in an email to the newspaper. "To the best of his recollection, he did not read the Eastman memo until months after Jan. 6, when it was publicly reported."
The select House panel, which includes seven Democrats and two Republicans, virtually interviewed Trump's son-in-law and former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner last week.
A source familiar with the situation told NBC News described Kushner as being cooperative and friendly, adding that he did the talking, as opposed to having his lawyers speak for him.
U.S. Congresswoman and Democrat Elaine Luria from Virginia, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said that Kushner "was able to voluntarily provide information to us to verify, substantiate, provide his own take on this different reporting."
The committee has also recently voted to recommend criminal contempt of Congress against former Trump White House advisers Dan Scavino Jr. and Peter Navarro over their refusals to comply with the investigation.
Scavino and Navarro have argued that executive privilege prevents their cooperation with subpoenas from the Democratic-led committee.
On Jan. 6, 2021, thousands of individuals, mostly Trump supporters, stormed the U.S. Capitol and disrupted a joint session of Congress in the process of affirming the 2020 presidential election results.
Over the course of about seven hours on that day, the mob assaulted police officers, including about 114 Capitol Police officers who reported injuries. Dozens of other police officers were also injured during the incident.
Five deaths have been linked by authorities to the mayhem. Four officers who responded to the attack reportedly died by suicide within the next several months.
The worst attack on Congress in more than 200 years, the "siege" led to Trump's second impeachment by the House shortly before his term officially ended.
At a rally in a town in the U.S. state of Michigan on Saturday, Trump continued political rhetoric and unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 presidential election "was rigged and stolen."
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is also working on cases related to the Capitol Riot.
In the 14 months since the attack, more than 775 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol, including over 245 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the DOJ. ■